2020 was supposed to be an exciting year for Southeast Asia’s thriving startup ecosystem. With strong economic growth, rising affluence, and growth capital strengthened, startups were entering into the region’s golden age.

But all that changed when the novel strain of coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) coined as COVID-19, came into this world. And before you know it, face masks and toilet paper were sold out, oil prices went subzero, and the world continues to debate on whether barbers and bubble tea are considered essential services to continue operating in this current pandemic. Welcome to the new normal!

Most startups should be agile enough to adapt to all the “who moved my cheese” moments in what was destined to be a wicked roller coaster ride anyway. But this is an unprecedented global crisis where even the large corporations are taking a beating from. So here are four tips out of the playbook that might be useful for startups to rewire their culture, brave through this pandemic and emerge stronger than ever.

The ability to recruit exceptional tech talent

A bold vision must be accompanied by technology, as the key enabler for disruptive innovation, and the catalyst required for startups to grow and scale. It is an integral part of your internal operations, external communications, cross-border business activities, and the very foundation of the product/solution that would eventually be shipped to your customers.

Given the ever-rising expectations in today’s world, there is little or no room for a buggy UX and any half-decked features, even for the early adopters. That means no more cutting corners with your tech stack, and/or compromising on the quality of your tech team.

Also Read: ‘Our main barrier to growth is the status quo in retail sector’: KiotViet’s Deputy GM Tri Cao

The tech talent shortage is a global phenomenon, so it is even more pressing that founders and companies must now have the ability to attract tech talent and foster a healthy engineering culture within the firm.

Instead of competing with the FAANGs, the banks, and other large companies to vie for local hires, startups might be better served by tapping on overseas talent pools. Companies such as Sea Group, V-key, CXA, and Lazada, have done so by venturing offshore to build their software engineering teams and tech hubs in Vietnam.

Offshoring is the new market expansion

As a startup based in an ASEAN city, you almost always have to think regional from day one in order to reach a bigger market to grow the business. That usually means hiring across all teams and expanding into new markets once your startup achieves product-market fit and raised external funding.

There’s just one problem – the funds have to be shared amongst other forms of necessary spending in an effort to achieve the next set of milestones, and you probably don’t have enough cash to cover all the expenses of going abroad while focusing on the product at the same time.

Since you need to grow your tech capabilities and expand the business simultaneously, why not kill two birds with one stone by building your offshore tech team in the very geography that’s next on your hit list? This would act as a soft-landing for the business to gain initial exposure and establish an initial presence in the new market, before diving in deeper.

But don’t be a hero and do it all on your own. It is always recommended to work with a trusted partner to navigate the operational risks and administrative speed bumps along the way so that you can continue to focus on moving fast and breaking things.

At Tech JDI, we’ve worked with companies like ShopBack, Aspire, Oddle, and Minterest, to facilitate their market expansion into Vietnam.

Also Read: Can tech prevent the end of civilisation?

The consensus from the ecosystem now is for founders to re-strategise for a strong rebound in H2 2020, and this could be an approach for your startup moving forward.

Time to embrace remote working

In the tech startup world, where everyone ships code and claims to embrace the future of work, it still had to take a global crisis like this for us to get comfortable and embrace the likes of Zoom and Google Meet, amongst other digital tools to help facilitate communications and do our jobs better.

It’s not that we’re not tech-savvy enough or digitally ready yet. It was always about trust and execution. So maybe it’s a good thing that most of us were forced into lockdowns and work-from-home regulations with no time to think nor react. Founders now realise that:

(1) employees are able to get shit done remotely given the rights measures and policies in place to support this practice,

(2) there is a significant amount of time and monies saved from the reduced need for office rental and transport.

In the new normal, telecommuting will no longer be frowned upon as a last resort, and startups will have a newfound confidence and expertise to hire and manage teams remotely, even across geographical borders.

Also Read: How travel tech startup Travelhorse survives the pandemic by branching into new territory

Given this context, founders should now have a new perspective on Southeast Asia – not just as the promised land with a market of 655 million people, but also as an opportunity to also pursue a distributed team strategy to diversify cost and culture within the organisation.

Now, all we have to do is to keep our fingers crossed that COVID-19 is not just the MVP that forced the digital transformation of your company, but for your home’s wifi broadband and your local city’s digital infrastructure too.

Balancing growth, cost, and quality all at the same time

When tech startups became the modern-day kool-aid in this part of the world est. 2010, founders (and VCs) spent the better half of the decade in pursuit of a growth trajectory that was supposed to look like the first letter of Jesus’ name. More recently, the ecosystem realised that unicorn-ification in its initial form was not sustainable, and unit economics became the new holy grail.

Think of it as a hybrid between a unicorn and a cockroach, and that’s the beast mode that your startup has to escalate to. Moving fast and breaking things is still the name of the game, but no longer is it performed recklessly “at all costs”. Like the race to find a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2, the startup which manages to figure this out the fastest will find salvation.

It takes an ecosystem to raise a startup

More than ever before, the ecosystem must band together for all stakeholders involved to win the war against the invisible enemy.

At Tech JDI, we believe in global innovation for a better world. We understand startups and scaling, having started three years ago as a venture support services arm under TNF Ventures to help our own portfolio companies cross the chasm. Since then, we’ve supported more than 30 companies across southeast Asia to build-up their tech teams and establish a business presence in Vietnam.

If you’re keen to learn about how we can help you to expand your tech team and build a market presence in Vietnam, get in touch with us.

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On-demand video streaming platform under Indonesia’s gojek, GoPlay, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in an independent funding round led by ZWC Partners and Golden Gate Ventures.

Other investors included Openspace Ventures, Ideosource Entertainment, and Redbadge Pacific.

The streaming service plans to use the cash to enhance its technology to help Indonesian filmmakers introduce and distribute their work to a larger audience, positioning itself as a medium of high quality locally produced movies and series.

Although American global streaming platforms have snowballed, the space has become more competitive in the past with addition from several new rivals.

However, taking the example of the liquidation streaming service Hooq, as well as Malaysia’s iflix, video streaming has always struggled to make an impact in local markets.

Edy Sulistyo, CEO of GoPlay, on the contrary, believes that Gojek massive regional footprint will give it an added advantage compared to the rest to come up with great local content to support and grow Indonesia’s creative industry.

Also Read: gojek names Facebook, PayPal as new investors in latest funding round

“GoPlay was launched to meet the fast-growing needs of Indonesia’s entertainment industry. Indonesia’s local pool of content creators needs more avenues to showcase their talent, while our growing pool of mobile consumers wants access to more local content at their fingertips,” he commented.

“By combining the resources and expertise of these partners with Gojek’s footprint in Indonesia, we are well-positioned to support and grow Indonesia’s creative industry, while continuing to reach more consumers with quality local content.”

Regionally speaking, even as Netflix and Amazon continue to dominate Hollywood content, there is still a lot of potentials when it comes to local content.

In a recent article by Kr-Asia, Iflix CEO Cam Walker said that because the target audience for local content providers is Indonesia’s middle-to-low income group, there is still a huge possibility of growth.

This class makes up a significant percentage of the country and increasingly turns towards the television to watch local dramas.

“Looking at the current growth and demand for content streaming, we believe that the Indonesian content market has the potential to reach US$1 billion within the next three years,” said Andi Boediman, CEO of Ideosource Entertainment.

“Hence, GoPlay plays a strategic role within the gojek ecosystem, in acquiring new users, increasing user engagement and retaining existing users through its quality on-demand content,” he added.

This news follows gojek’s recent funding news from high-profile technology firms including Google, Tencent and PayPal.

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Image Credit: Gojek

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Tiki, a Vietnam-based e-commerce startup, reportedly has received US$130 million in a new funding round led by Singapore-headquartered private equity firm Northstar Group.

e27 reached out to Tiki for the news but the representative declined to give any comment.

According to DealStreetAsia, the funding round may still continue until it raises up to US$150 million in funding.

Some names involved as investors on Tiki’s cap table include Vietnamese unicorn VNG, Japanese firms CyberAgent Capital and Sumitomo Corporation, Chinese retailer JD, Singapore’s EDBI, as well as South Korean funds SparkLabs Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and STIC Investments.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki is tiding over COVID-19 crisis

Tiki was founded in 2010 as a bookselling platform before growing into an online marketplace, fulfillment centres, and logistics network composed into one e-commerce platform.

When the company announced its Series C funding round in 2018, Chinese online retailed JD was said to be one of its largest shareholders. The company’s investment into Tiki is part of its strategy to enter the lucrative Southeast Asian market, after securing a presence in Indonesia and Thailand.

In 2019, as part of its effort to expand its vertical and become a one-stop platform, Tiki bought event ticketing startup Ticketbox for an undisclosed sum.

Just recently, it has been reported that Tiki and local rival Sendo have attempted to merge their businesses. DealStreetAsia reported that the two e-commerce players had reached an agreement on the merger with no updates on whether the transaction has been approved by the National Competition Committee.

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Image Credit: Tiki

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Singapore’s metal printing startup 3DInfra raises pre-Series A from SEEDS, M Venture

Singapore-based metal additive design and printing startup 3DInfra has raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series A funding from MAS-licensed M Venture Partners and Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital.

The company said that the funding will be directed into driving 3D Metalforge’s technology development, establishing an Additive Manufacturing Center in Houston, Texas, and team development.

The company claimed that its Additive Manufacturing Center in Singapore is ISO-certified and is one of only 7 manufacturers globally certified by Lloyds Register to print marine parts.

According to Mena FN, the company is currently serving clients in the oil & gas, marine, and defense sectors, 3D Metalforge focusses on large format, high-value specialist metals for industry application. It leverages proprietary design processes and metal printer technologies that produce specialist parts faster, cheaper, and of higher quality than traditional manufacturing.

“3DInfra’s Additive Manufacturing solutions enable them to manufacture high-value parts with improved performance while reducing costs and production time. Such solutions strengthen our advanced manufacturing capabilities and encourage disruptive innovations in traditional sectors like the Marine, and Oil & Gas industry,” said Geoffrey Yeo, General Manager of SEEDS Capital.

Singapore earmarks US$285M fund for innovative startups

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that Singapore would allocate US$285 million to help startups sustain innovation and entrepreneurship activities and gain access to credit, and bridge the financing gap they face amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by The Straits Times.

The Special Situation Fund for Start-ups (SSFS) will be administered by the EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the Economic Development Board, and SEEDS Capital.

EDBI and SEEDS Capital will invest in selected startups with private sector co-investors in a one-to-one ratio and those that were incorporated as private limited companies with their headquarters and key value-added activities in Singapore.

Also Read: Singapore Budget 2020 and what it means for the tech ecosystem this year

The scheme will end when the funds are fully committed or by October 31, 2021. Involving the private sector, co-investors are said to plan to double the deployable capital, and the SSFS will enable these companies to continue their early product development and innovations to build a strong foundation for growth.

Interested early-stage start-ups can apply for the funding via ssfs@enterprisesg.gov.sg, while late-stage start-ups can apply via ssfs@edbi.com

OVO’s P2P lending arm Taralite gets licence from Indonesia Financial Services Authority

Taralite, Indonesian digital wallet OVO’s P2P lending arm, has attained a business license from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) as an IT-based Lending Provider.

With this license, OVO and Taralite plan to continue to support the government’s efforts to implement Indonesia’s digital vision and mission, particularly bringing people, especially in the MSMEs sector, closer to digital financial services.

OVO’s CEO Jason Thompson said that through these financial service innovations, users and MSMEs players will have expanded access to untapped services, including consumer and business lending. ​

Along with OVO, towards the beginning of 2020, Taralite has introduced OVO DanaTara as a cash flow management and additional business capital solution for Indonesian MSMEs. Also, Taralite provides online MSMEs access to financing of up to IDR 500 million (US$35,000) with the approval process around 1-3 working days and tenor up to 12 months.

To date, Taralite services are available for MSMEs who are members of prominent e-commerce platforms in Indonesia such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and Bukalapak.

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Co-founder and Chief Culture Officer Miguel McKelvey quits WeWork

Miguel McKelvey, Co-founder and longtime Chief Culture Officer of WeWork, has announced that he is leaving the company by the end of this month.

McKelvey is also one of the last executives remaining at the global co-working space giant, after the recent departure of CTO Shiva Rajaraman, Head of Real Estate Aaron Ellison, and four other board members.

“After ten years, I’ve made one of the most difficult decisions of my life — one that I’m not even sure has sunk in just yet. But at the end of this month, I’ll be leaving WeWork. While it’s hard to leave, and I know there is a lot more work to be done, I could only make this decision knowing this company and our people are in good hands,” McKelvey wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Grab launches initiative to help SEA companies grow during COVID-19

Ride-hailing giant Grab has launched Small Business Booster Programme to help small businesses in Southeast Asia to grow during COVID-19, according to a statement.

The initiative will help companies pivot from offline to online and help build their visibility via the Grab app.

“COVID-19 has accelerated change. We have seen dependency on online services grow exponentially almost overnight. This is spurring innovation in Southeast Asia but also putting us at risk of widening the digital divide,” said Hooi Ling Tan, Co-founder of Grab.

“Small businesses make up the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, but the vast majority of these businesses are offline. They will need to embrace technology and digitalise or risk falling further behind.  Through our Small Business Booster Programme, we hope to help small businesses navigate this new normal. We will draw on our technology and reach to find new ways of doing business that can inclusively support everyone,” Tan commented.

India’s intercity bus travel startup YoloBus raises US$3.3M

Yolobus, an India-based startup, has raised US$3.3 million in funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from India Quotient.

This brings Yolobus’s total funds raised to date to US$4.1 million.

Bus travel has been one of the most common modes of transport in India. However, it has also suffered from the issue of hygiene, safety and congestion. Yolobus managed to identify this problem much before the wake of COVID-19, where hygiene is being majorly stressed upon.

“Bus transport in India has been a gruelling, unsafe, unhygienic, untimely experience for travellers. Apart from addressing all these issues, Yolobus will resume its operations with extensive precautionary measures for every trip,” said Founder Shailesh Gupta.

“Every passenger will be checked with infra-red temperature measuring guns before onboarding. Customers will be able to pre-order essential PPE kits and know the temperature of the bus crew members before boarding the bus,” he added.

Yolobus’s goal is to provide “airline-level services”-like bus captains, high-speed Wi-Fi, washrooms, food and beverages, device charging points, etc for buses. 

Singapore’s DocDoc partners with Kaitaiming to expand its services into China

Singapore’s DocDoc has announced a partnership with Kaitaiming Technology (KTM) today to strategically expand its services to China, according to a press statement.

Through this, DocDoc will add its doctor-discovery services to China’s insurance companies on the KTM platform and provide the latter’s insurance partners with access to medically trained concierge team.

Also Read: Tiki reportedly raises US$130M in funding led by Northstar Group

“China is the world’s most exciting insurance market,” said Cole Sirucek, Co-founder of DocDoc.

“DocDoc’s AI-powered doctor discovery service is ideally suited to serve China’s massive unmet need for consumers looking for high-quality, affordable care,” he added.

Tenopy partners with AMKFSC to provide underprivileged students with free online classes

Singaporean edutech company Tenopy has partnered with local charity organisation AMKFSC to provide underprivileged students with free online classes, according to a press statement.

This initiative will offer live online classes and personalised learning experiences to students from Primary three to Secondary two levels, along with free recorded lessons and homework materials to AMKFSC volunteer tutors.

“Our vision is to make the highest quality classes and learning accessible to the many students,” said Tenopy Founder Soh Chong Kian.

“This partnership with AMKFSC takes us further in realising this vision. We are offering free classes and content to students who need them the most in this difficult time,” Kian added.

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